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New Boy Scout Policy: Too Soon To Feel Montana Impact

Preston Kemp CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Last month, the Boy Scouts of America lifted their ban on gay scout leaders, but Boy Scout officials in Montana say it’s too soon to tell whether the national organization’s policy change will have much of an impact here.

In 2013, the Boy Scouts began allowing open or avowed homosexual scouts into the organization. But the new policy allowing gay scout leaders leaves room for discrimination. It says scout units can chose their leaders based on their religious beliefs. So if they don’t agree with the gay lifestyle, they can still prevent the person from being a leader.

Kim Leighton of Montana Pride Foundation, an organization who advocates for LBGTQ equality, says she’s happy with the progress.

“We believe that boy scouts work with youth at a critical and important time in their lives," Leighton says. "And this will make it even more important that scout leaders represent the diversity and breadth of our community.”

But she's worried that some roadblocks may come into play.

Leighton continues, “We do find it disappointing that religious chartered organizations are still able to discriminate against scout leaders based on their sexual orientation and we do hope that these troops do the just and caring things by accepting all leaders.”

Each scout group is sponsored by an organization, and if that organization’s beliefs don’t agree with gay sexual orientation, they still aren’t required to allow these leaders in their units. Senior scout executive for Boy Scouts of Montana, Gordon Rubard, says 65 to 70 percent of Montana’s scout units are sponsored by religious organizations.

In North Dakota the Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Bismarck ordered parishes in the western part of the state to sever sponsorship ties with the BSA.

The Mormon Church says it’s re-evaluating its relationship with the Scouts. Rubard says the Mormon Church is the single largest sponsoring church organization for the group.

Rubard says, “In terms to pulling their funding I think their funding will be directly related to their continued involvement to scouting or if they chose to not be involved in scouting. If they decided not to that would be a loss to the scouting program both locally and nationwide.”

According to Salt Lake Tribune, the Mormon Church sponsors more than a third of Boy Scout troops nationwide.

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